May Day 2016: Mobilization, Intervention, and Solidarity

May Day 2016 showed an upsurge in anarchist initiatives, both in terms of interventions in the social terrain, mobilizations on our own, and also through the showing of solidarity with ongoing social struggles such as the unfolding prisoner strikes in Alabama and the campaign to boycott Driscoll’s berries in solidarity with striking workers in San Quinton. New crews, organizations, and groups are being organized, linking up and taking action, as some cities saw anarchists hitting the streets for the first time in years. Already established organizations and formations, such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), also stretched their legs in a real way while autonomous actions in other cities also took shape outside of formal groups.

From anarchist picnics and block parties, to the now 5 year running annual street battles in Seattle, from wheatepasted posters to dropped banners and printed newsletters, people showed this year that they were not one trick ponies. People looked at their surroundings and thought about what actions were strategic and possible. Hopefully this is a start of a greater turning point for anarchists and autonomous anti-capitalists.

We’d like to thank everyone that submitted a May Day report to IGD and encourage others who have not yet done so to do the same. This round up will include links, pictures, and tweets, but should not be considered the final word on the matter. We encourage other people to submit their own analysis as well as critiques. Also, if we left something out, get in touch with us!

At the end of the day, we should also be looking at what other cities pulled off and ask if we ourselves could have incorporated these tactics into our own strategies. Is it better to have a family oriented event such as a BBQ or a picnic and forego a militant march? Some cities decided to do both. What do we get out of black blocs and noise demos if they lead to costly arrests? Are they worth it? What legal and support infrastructure is needed to give help to those when repression does come? How do we engage with reformist, recuperative, and bureaucratic Leftist events (if at all) which seek to manage and contain action and self-organization? Do we show solidarity with some groups, or do we only add our critical voices and actions to these events and seek to find others doing the same? But moreover, how do we see these actions as part of a trajectory forward? Is May Day simply one more event that brings us together as a frail social scene, or is it a building block for future action and self-organization?

One final thought, we also want to encourage groups to set up methods of counter-information. In many cases in creating this roundup, it was very hard to track down what, if anything, had happened on May Day. While we all can’t or don’t want to be social media warriors, we do feel like sharing reports and analysis leads to a more healthy, reflective, and strategic anarchist movement. We also want to encourage people to not be afraid to write and to share their stories and analysis. For too long, anarchist writing has been seen as the realm of wordy academics, and overall, white men. Let’s really work to change this.

In the coming months, hopefully we can take these lessons and initiative and apply them to other dates of mobilization fast approaching. These include June 11th, an international day in solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners and September 9th, when a general strike has been called in all US prisons. Also, there is going to be a continuous stream of protests and disruptions against both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, both in their campaigns but also at the DNC and RNC, not to mention the growing need for a militant anti-fascist response to growing white nationalist events. In short, if May Day can do anything for us, its offer us a chance to stop and take stock of our activity, our capacity, our level of organization, and our infrastructure.

We’ll return next week with a full All the News You Didn’t Even Know Was Going Down, but in this spirit or revolt and reflection, let’s get to the round up.

I’m an anarchist in Seattle who has been attending the immigrants’ march annually since around 2007. I also sometimes go to the anti-capitalist march. I actually love when people forward this argument… that “white suburban neo-anarchists” are “exploiting” the immigrant march, because it’s so patently false on the most basic level that it reveals people who want to marginalize the anti-capitalist march (and thus aid the police in repressing it) can’t even be bothered to understand what the event is. THE ANTI-CAPITALIST MARCH, EVERY YEAR, HAS TAKEN PLACE IN A LITERAL DIFFERENT TIME AND PLACE THAN THE IMMIGRANTS’ MARCH. This is undoubtedly intentionally designed to PREVENT the different aims of the two events from interfering with each other while also allowing people to attend both. Many anarchists do attend both every year, and when they attend the immigrants’ march, they apparently play by the rules there. In my nine or so years of attending the immigrants march, I [only] remember one controversy ever between anarchists and other marchers, and it was over anarchists throwing leaflets in the air (lol.) Saying that the organizers of the anti-capitalist march are “exploiting” the immigrants’ march is deceptive, inaccurate, and–ironically–doing harm to the event you don’t support by bolstering the city’s narrative that the anti-capitalist march deserves whatever violent repression it gets.

If the anti-capitalist march were ever a break-away march from the immigrants rally, I would at least understand the debate. Instead, all I see are leftist protest bosses making sure that everyone stays in control and asks politely for reforms that never come–and immigrants losing interest in that strategy for obvious reasons, just like everyone else–and enabling the police to repress anyone who doesn’t fall in line by marginalizing other people’s efforts.

And about 20 bicyclists rode over to Sprig and picketed but most of the operations were shut down in preparation for the protest. A speech was given to explain the grievances of workers and the anti-union layoff of bike couriers. Many cooks and kitchen staff waved in support. After the speeches a smaller group of about 7 activists stormed inside demanding to speak with Matt Landry who is the manager responsible for the layoff. They chanted “union busting is disgusting” over a megaphone which echoed throughout Sprig’s building.

Eventually some distribution managers informed them that they needed to leave and that they were trespassing. The activists slowly proceeded to exit the building while condemning Sprig and in the end there was a general feeling of empowerment that inspired people to take more direct action in the future.

The march began at Santa Cruz City Hall and made its way to the downtown New Leaf Market, where a large group of demonstrators entered the popular natural foods store. Inside the market, a letter signed by community members was delivered to the business asking them to honor the Driscoll’s boycott and to stop selling the brand’s berries.

From New Leaf, community members marched to the Beach Flats Community, and then on to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where gardeners and community members delivered a letter to the Seaside Company asking that the business work with the city to preserve the entire Beach Flats Garden for the gardeners. On April 26, the Santa Cruz City Council formalized a lease agreement with the Santa Cruz Seaside Company that only preserves 60% of the garden for public use for three years.

Protests, demonstrations, store disruptions, and pickets in Santa Cruz and Wattsonville have been continuous and ongoing.

Philadelphia

A small group marched on a police substation in solidarity with the ongoing prisoner strikes and put up stickers and threw paint on the police building. Read a report with photos here.

Austin

A banner was dropped and flyers handed out for ongoing anti-prison organizing efforts in solidarity with the unfolding prisoners strikes.

Anarchist prisoner, Michael Kimble, who is currently incarcerated in Holman prison, issued this statement for May Day and the strike:

On May 1st, 2016, prisoners in Alabama will be staging a workstrike at a number of Alabama prisons.

My reasons for shutting down is simple, I want to bring as much pain and disorder to the state (ADOC) as I can as an individual in any way that I can. I don’t give a fuck about “changing any laws” because they are the mechanism that is used to keep people from being free. Fuck the law! The only true freedom is when we act outside of the law.

But in the cause of solidarity I’m asking all outside rebels to express their solidarity with the striking prisoners through free direct action. Join us, protest at an Alabama prison, burn some shit down/up, drop some banners, just cause some fucking chaos. Shit is getting real in Alabama prisons, not that it wasn’t already.

It’s going down! Fire to the prisons and the society that creates them, upholds them, and maintains them. Fuck peace! Locking humans in cages is not peace.

Showed up at the 8000+ person immigrant rights march, dozens of IWW members, many with anti-prison signs. Handed out hundreds of flyers and left from the end of that march to a second march against prison profiteers and a noise demo at the Milwaukee Secure detention facility.

Chicago anarchists marched on May Day which lead to 19 arrests as the group conducted a noise demos outside of two jails. According to our sources, all those arrested are now out but court cases are still on going. Read a report from Chicago here.

Washington, DC

Anti-Fascists marched within the main May Day march to the White House. In the past years, fascists had rallied in opposition there although none were spotted this year.

Pittsburgh

Wobblies held a May Day celebration and gathering as well as participated in a May Day March.

A post shared by prometeonuclear (@prometeonuclear) on May 1, 2016 at 4:15pm PDT

“To work or to die of hunger, that is freedom under capitalism. Attack! To destroy our chains! For communism and anarchy against exploitation and misery!”

Querétaro

In Querétaro, the governor and his cabinet thought they would watch the May Day march. They promptly fled after teachers tossed hats at them and chanted, “Pancho, you said everything would change. Lie! Lie! It’s the same crap!”

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It's Going Down is a digital community center from anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements. Our mission is to provide a resilient platform to publicize and promote revolutionary theory and action.